While many North American League of Legends fans have praised organizations like Evil Geniuses for developing NA talent into the league’s future superstars, Team Liquid has also played a huge part in developing local talent.
Last split, Team Liquid Academy took the championship home behind the standout performances from players like AD carry Sean “Yeon” Sung and support Bill “Eyla” Nguyen.
Yeon is now set to start in the LCS for Team Liquid, while Eyla will be the starting support for FlyQuest next split.
With the all-new North American Challengers League set to kick off just a month away, Liquid has finally announced their roster under the helm of Team Liquid First. The team is comprised of former Evil Geniuses pipeline players and has already gotten strong reviews from the community.
Team Liquid First roster for 2023
- Top — Jett Michael “Srtty” Joye
- Jungle — Siddhant “SiddyWiddy” Nath
- Mid — Joshua Yongjoon “Aspect” Lee
- ADC — Miya “Miya” Kim
- Support — David “Rovex” Sin-Keo
The majority of the roster has been pulled from a mix of Evil Genius’ Academy team (Srtty) and its former Proving Grounds squad known as EG Prodigies with Aspect and Miya. Both members of this mid-AD carry duo spent a majority of 2022 under the Evil Geniuses banner, and will now get their first taste of second-tier NA League action together next split.
Srtty has been a mainstay of the formerly known “Academy” level of League and was a part of EG rosters with both Danny and Jojopyun. The word veteran doesn’t usually associate well with such a developmental level of professional League, but having a guy in the top lane that’s been in these systems for multiple years is important.
Interestingly enough, Srtty isn’t the only veteran on this roster. The most intriguing edition to this team is Rovex, hands down. The former University of Saint Thomas support has been playing competitively since 2016 and has played with some of the staple teams of the amateur scene like Zenith Esports and Taco Gaming.
This will be Rovex’s first time jumping up to near-LCS level competition, a step up many fans have been calling for.
Rovex isn’t the only player coming over from University of Saint Thomas’ league roster, technically. SiddyWiddy stood in as a temporary sub for the team for a total of four days. Still, SiddyWiddy and Rovex have been teammates multiple times over their careers. SiddyWiddy was also on both the Zenith Esports and Taco Gaming rosters with Rovex. Safe to say these two understand each other’s playstyles very well, and it will be interesting to watch if that bond between this jungle-support duo can carry over to the Challenger League stage.
There is a lot to be excited about for the future of Liquid, and for their chances in the Challenger League with Team Liquid First.
With the NACL taking over the NA weekend time slot for broadcasts, more eyes than ever before will be on these youngsters and the coaching staff behind them.
